Mother’s Day

Airports marking Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is this Sunday, May 12, and some airports around the country are doing their part to make moms happy.

JAX FLOWERS FOR MOM

“We are looking forward to the smiles – and a few tears – we experience each
year when our JAX Volunteer Ambassadors give out over 1,000 flowers at our
Mother’s Day Carnation Presentation,” said Bryan Long, Customer Service Manager for Florida’s Jacksonville International Airport.

At Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway International Airports moms will receive a complimentary flower seed pack at participating concessionaires. Look for the signs Friday, May 10 through Sunday, May 12.

SEED PACKET ORD

And at Miami International Airport, they will celebrating Mother’s Day from Friday, May 10 through Sunday, May 12 with a wide variety of fun free events, including a craft table for making Mother’s Day cards, foil-wrapped chocolate roses for moms, a ‘pick a pearl’ event with real pears in oysters, photo ops and more. Details, times, locations here.

Buying mom a gift?

At Philadelphia Int’l Airport, the shops in the Philadelphia Marketplace are offering a free gift with purchase through May 12. Spend $100 (pre-tax) at any retail store or combination of retail stores (food purchases excluded) and you’ll receive a free LOVE tote bag (while supplies last). All receipts must be from the same day. (Exchange receipts for a tote bag at either Heritage Books B/C Connector or Stellar Books D/E Connector. Limit one bag per customer.)

Louis C. Tiffany Dragonfly Embroidered Zip-Around Case

In New York, the Food & Shops at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B will be offering a gift with purchase through May 12th as well. Travelers spending $100 or more at any retail store, or combination of retail stores, will receive a free dragonfly embroidered bag from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Store. (Redeem receipts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Store, located near Gates D, before security.)

Spend Mother’s Day at the airport

Airports around the country are rolling out the red carpet for Mother’s Day with special events, free gifts and shopping discounts. Here’s a round-up:

Keeping with their tradition, Volunteer Airport Ambassadors at Florida’s Jacksonville International Airport will have about 1000 carnations to hand out to moms passing through the airport on Mother’s Day.

At Miami International Airport they’re celebrating Mother’s Day Friday through Sunday with discounts, gifts-with-purchase and freebies in the shops, foil-wrapped chocolate roses for moms and events that include live music, a pick-a-pearl game with real oysters and a chance to make last-minute Mother’s Day cards and photo postcards.
(Find the coupons and event locations here.)

At Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway Airports, food and retail concessions posting the sign above will be handing out free flower seed packets (zinnias) to moms from Friday, May 11 through Sunday, May 13, 2012. (While supplies last).

There are also special Mother’s Day sales and gift-with-purchase offers going on at Philadelphia International Airport , at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, at the Swatch stores in JFK International Airport, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and at Boston’s Logan Airport.

Discounts for moms at O’Hare and Midway airports

To celebrate Mother’s Day, many concessionsaires at O’Hare and Midway International Airports in Chicago will be offering discounts for mothers on Saturday May 7th and Sunday, May 8, 2011.

To prove you’re a mom, show a photo of your kid or kids (or any kid or kids… ) at the time of purchase and you’ll receive a 15% discount on selected food, beverage and retail items at participating concessions displaying this sign.

Flowers for moms at Jacksonville International Airport

Mother’s Day is Sunday May 8th and volunteers at Jacksonville International Airport will once again be on duty handing out about 1000 red, white and pink carnations to moms passing through the terminal.

This flower thing has become a tradition at JAX airport.  Back in 2009, volunteers handed out carnations on Valentine’s Day and again on Mother’s Day and the response was so positive that they decided to keep going.

(From the George Eastman House collection, via Flickr Commons)

Jacksonville International Airport offers travelers some other nice perks year-round. There’s an art gallery that hosts a variety of temporary exhibitions and permanent art that includes the work of Gregor Tuck, who cataloged the wide variety of gendered pictograms and glazed them onto the tiles surrounding the restroom entryways on Concourse C.

And if your mother was here, you’d know what she’d say… “Go before you get on the plane…”

Getting mom at the airport?

Back in 1908, Anna Jarvis probably didn’t have pie-throwing and roller-coaster rides in mind when she began her quest to make the second Sunday in May a day for honoring our mothers.

orlando-pie-picture

And she probably didn’t think going into debt for a rushed Mother’s Day brunch should end up being part of the deal.

So I bet she’d enjoy knowing about some of the cheap, offbeat and totally fun Mother’s Day offers and activities I found this week for my Well-Mannered Traveler Column on MSNBC.com.

sonora-mother-lode-roundup_h
For example, participating TCBY shops are offering moms a free cup or cone on Mother’s Day and T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants will give mom a free dessert if you buy her an entrée. Moms get free carnations at Jacksonsville International Airport  and a free round of miniature golf in Philadelphia. And everyone gets free admission at 17 museums in the San Francisco Bay area. Here are some other spots around the country offering free, fun stuff for mom.